1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cucumber conservation in hot climates and especially a reusable brine for conserving cucumbers in bulk in containers equipped with means for stirring the brine.
2. Description of the related art including information disclosed under 37 CFR Sections 1.97-99
Cucumbers may be pickled and canned directly after harvest as so called "fresh packs" resulting in pickled cucumbers having a good taste and crispy consistency. The processing of cucumbers to produce fresh packs is also very uncomplicated including essentially only putting sorted and picked cucumbers 5 into cans or jars, adding the pickling solution, closing the cans or jars, and finally heat treating the closed cans or jars to pasteurize their content. The drawback of this procedure is that it requires a very big processing capacity during the relatively short harvest period.
In order to overcome this drawback and enable processing huge quantities of cucumbers during an extended period with less personnel and processing equipment, part of the harvest is conventionally fermented and stored in bulk in large silos. From these silos cucumbers are withdrawn at a desired rate for processing in a conventional manner.
Without discussing in detail different known fermentation procedures one may in general contend that the pickled cucumbers processed from such fermented bulk products, are not of the same high quality as those of fresh packed cucumbers. The controlling of the fermentation process to obtain an even quality is also difficult and the yield, taste, color and consistency of the pickled cucumbers are not so good as for fresh packs.
From the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,679 there is known a brine for conserving cucumbers in bulk making fermentation of the cucumbers unnecessary. Commercial applications of this brine have a relatively high sodium chloride content of about 0.3 kg per liter of the aqueous solution. Such a brine may after use cause serious effluent problems and necessities expensive and painstaking desalination of huge quantities of brine. This brine sometimes produces a negative umber color in cucumbers conserved in tropical climates.
It is known that the sodium chloride content in brine for conserving cucumbers should be increased when the ambient temperature is increased or decreased, in the latter case to prevent the brine from freezing into ice. Thus, it was quite surprising to find that the sodium chloride content of a brine for conserving cucumbers in hot climates could be lowered provided its content of ingestible acids such as acetic and lactic acid was simultaneously kept at a relatively high level. It was also unexpected that the conserving effect of such a brine in every respect was improved in comparison to the brine disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,679 although several of its ingredients, conventionally considered necessary, were deleted.
The main advantage of the present invention, however, is that it provides a brine which can be reused after addition of sodium and calcium chlorides and acid to compensate for chemicals absorbed by the cucumbers during conservation. Conventional brines have caused serious effluent problems due to their high chloride content, whereas the present reusable brine will not cause any waste water problems whatsoever. Thus, the brine of the present invention also helps to conserve the environment.
The low salinity of the brine of the present invention is sufficient to conserve cucumbers in hot climates with an average temperature of about 30.degree. C. when the concentration of acid is kept relatively high and when the brine is stirred in conventional manner to maintain a homogeneous salt concentration throughout the brine. No negative umber color was observed in these conditions.
The object of the present invention is thus to provide a reusable brine for conserving cucumbers in bulk in stirred containers and hot climates which brine has a very low chloride content and which does cause less or no effluent problems at all.
The present invention also enables obtaining picked cucumbers of substantially the same high quality as by fresh packing but with the same personnel and capital investments as with the known fermentation processes used for storing the cucumbers in bulk awaiting processing for canning.
According to the present invention, cucumbers are conserved in bulk by submerging the same in a brine containing in solution at least about 0.02 kg NaCl, 0.02-0.12 kg of an ingestible acid such as acetic acid including vinegar, or lactic acid, or a non-toxic salt thereof, and at least 0.1 g of an ingestible calcium salt such as CaCl.sub.2. When only the lower limit is given, it should be understood that the upper limit is set by the solubility of respective ingredient in the brine solution. It is, however, usually sufficient to use less than 0.15 kg sodium chloride and preferably not more than 0.12 kg of sodium chloride per liter of aqueous solution.